Best practices in improving national legislation to meet the World Trade Organizations’ (WTO) requirements were discussed during an online seminar organized by the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat on December 2-3.
The two-day event was attended by representatives from the Mejlis chamber of the Milli Gengesh, the bicameral parliament of Turkmenistan, the country’s ministries of foreign affairs, justice, trade and foreign economic relations, finance and economy, agriculture and environmental protection, the Turkmen State Customs Service, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan and other ministries and relevant bodies of Turkmenistan, the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat said in its press release.
Two experts from Georgia presented priorities for promoting international trade and reviewed WTO requirements.They informed about the removal of technical barriers to trade, tariff policy in agriculture and food, the determination of the customs value of goods, cotton trade and domestic support issues, border measures on intellectual property rights, and relevant WTO agreements, including on trade facilitation and on sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
Referring to the decision of OSCE Ministerial Council on "Strengthening Good Governance and Promoting Connectivity”, John MacGregor, Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat said “this OSCE commitment gave a new impetus to the Organization's work on promoting economic cooperation, including through providing support in the integration of economies into the international economic and financial system, above all through accession to the World Trade Organization”.
MacGregor added that, over the past five years, the OSCE has significantly intensified its activities in the area of trade facilitation and promotion of the principles of uninterrupted and secure transport and transit.
This event marks the continuation of the OSCE Centre's co-operation with the government of Turkmenistan in the area of trade and transport sector development.
Turkmenistan has been an observer at the WTO since July 2020. At the end of November this year, Turkmenistan officially applied for the WTO membership.